Applying a best-worst scaling methodology to prioritise important attributes of counselling from community pharmacy users' perspective, Saudi Arabia

Objectives This study aimed to identify community pharmacy users' relevant counselling attributes and to quantify their relative importance. Methods A total of 22 attributes related to counselling in community pharmacy were identified from a literature review, interviews with local pharmacy users and validation among academic experts. To prioritise the attributes, a best-worst scaling (BWS) object case survey was used. Each respondent was asked to complete 17 choice tasks. In each choice task, the participants were asked to choose the most and least important attributes of counselling from a list of four items. The study was conducted in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Key findings A 120 participants completed the questionnaire. The three most important attributes were the quality of information provided during consultation, the extent and depth of the consultation and the pharmacist's education and experience. The three least important attribute were type of pharmacy (independent versus chain pharmacy) and pharmacist's gender or nationality. Conclusions Our study suggests that community pharmacy users place the most emphasis on the content of counselling and community pharmacists' experience and communication skills.